SACRAMENTO — Gavin Newsom is fed up with Republicans for attacking abortion rights and blocking gun laws — and along with his personal Democratic Party for failing to boldly and brashly take on the conservative proper and push a progressive agenda.
And as California’s first-term governor positions himself because the nationwide Democratic Party pit bull, no different concern is defining his political rise like well being care.
“Where the hell is my party?” Newsom fumed in May because it grew to become clear that the U.S. Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade. “Why aren’t we standing up more firmly?” He later took out a tv advert accusing Florida’s Republican leaders of “criminalizing women and doctors.”
Over the previous 12 months, Newsom has lobbed multiple attacks towards Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a possible presidential candidate, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — each Republicans — for his or her positions on weapons and abortion. He has taken to nationwide TV and social media to dub California an abortion sanctuary state that welcomes ladies from across the nation — and is boasting about a November ballot initiative that may enshrine the fitting to abortion within the state structure. And he’s framing gun violence as a public well being disaster, saying that Democrats have to extra aggressively problem Republicans to enact sweeping gun security legal guidelines.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 22, 2022
“It’s time to put them on the defense — we’re sick and tired of being on the defense,” Newsom stated in late July as he signed a law that enables Californians to sue gun-makers for negligence, a regulation modeled after a Texas law permitting non-public residents to sue abortion suppliers or those that assist ladies in search of an abortion.
Newsom, a former mayor of San Francisco, can be hitting the airwaves to tout his well being care accomplishments. He is crowing about expanding health care protection to thousands and thousands of beforehand uninsured Californians — a holy grail concern for Democrats agitating for common well being care — and California’s try to drive down drug costs by coming into the generic drug market. He additionally argues that, on his watch, California has led the nation in its response to the covid-19 pandemic, pointing to his resolution to impose the primary statewide stay-at-home order within the nation, in March 2020.
Political strategists and nationwide well being care consultants say well being care is a profitable concern for the Democratic Party because it readies for a midterm election battle in November — and as Democrats search a technique to retain the White House in 2024. And they are saying Newsom could possibly be a robust contender.
“You can’t look at Gavin Newsom and say he wouldn’t be a very attractive option,” stated Chris Jennings, a health policy veteran primarily based in Washington, D.C., who labored below Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. “He seems to relish debates at a time when people are looking for a fighter, and he’s well positioned, having notched some progressive health care wins. But it hasn’t been at the expense of scaring away moderates.”
Newsom, who final 12 months handily defeated a Republican-driven recall try and is anticipated to coast to reelection in deep-blue California in November, denies that he’s laying the groundwork for a presidential bid and says he helps President Joe Biden unequivocally.
But as he takes to the airwaves and social media to boast about his well being care bona fides, he seems to be exploring a nationwide marketing campaign and is placing a spin on his California file. For occasion, though he says California affords “universal access to health care coverage,” many Californians stay uninsured, can’t afford protection, or can’t get therapy even when they’ve medical health insurance.
“His achievements are often embellished, and pronouncements of success are often made before the hard work is done,” stated Rob Stutzman, a Republican strategist in California. “And there’s plenty of things for people like Ron DeSantis to point to about California that are utter failures, like the homelessness crisis.”
Polling exhibits slipping support for Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, additionally a Californian, and a current nationwide CNN ballot discovered that 75% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters want someone other than Biden to run in 2024. One late-June survey of U.S. adults instructed that Newsom may prevail in a common election matchup towards DeSantis or former President Donald Trump.
“I think we as Democrats are standing up to the right wing, but Gavin Newsom has a certain edge to his critique, and I like it. I think it’s feisty, I think it’s strong, I think it’s fearless,” stated former U.S. senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who retired from workplace in 2017 however is working to elect Democrats to nationwide workplace.
“Health care is important to him, and he figures out a way to get things done,” she stated. “When the time is right, I would be proud to support him.”
Newsom marketing campaign spokesperson Nathan Click stated Newsom believes Biden ought to run and is not going to problem him however argues he can elevate key Democratic points similar to abortion rights.
Republican leaders are coming after medical doctors prefer it’s the Salem witch trials.My newest “truth.” https://t.co/oxUzyaJu2f pic.twitter.com/e3oPIn4Mdv
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) August 5, 2022
“He’s leading by example and taking the fight to Republicans, making them own how they are taking away people’s rights and freedoms,” Click informed KHN. “He realizes that he has agency on this question and how the Democratic Party is going to rebuild.”
A spokesperson for Abbott slammed Newsom for ignoring issues on his house turf, such because the homelessness epidemic and the excessive price of residing. The DeSantis marketing campaign didn’t reply to requests for remark however has lobbed similar attacks against Newsom.
“Governor Newsom should focus on all the jobs and businesses that are leaving California and coming to Texas,” stated Abbott press secretary Renae Eze.
DeSantis hits again towards Newsom’s assaults: ‘People vote with their ft’https://t.co/8RuT1aGaFD
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 30, 2022
Newsom campaigned on single-payer health care throughout his first run for governor, promising to “lead the effort” to create a taxpayer-financed system that places the federal government in command of delivering care.
But in workplace, he has distanced himself from that pledge, as an alternative pressing a message of common well being care that retains the present system intact however expands protection.
“California is the FIRST and ONLY state in the nation offering universal access to health care coverage,” Newsom stated in back-to-back marketing campaign emails in late July. “We have the strongest gun safety laws in the country. We are making our own insulin in California.”
But California is not making its own insulin yet. And although Newsom has stated California affords common entry to well being care, protection stays too costly for a lot of low- and middle-income residents, and Medi-Cal — California’s Medicaid program — is riddled with issues that put care out of attain for a lot of.
“We as Democrats have to be honest enough to acknowledge that coverage does not automatically mean adequate or timely care,” stated Democratic strategist Garry South, a longtime Newsom ally. “The fact is that under Medi-Cal they’re often not getting good care that is timely and appropriate to meet their health care needs.”
Since he grew to become governor in 2019, Newsom has expanded Medi-Cal to a whole bunch of 1000’s of individuals residing within the state with out authorized authorization. This 12 months, he permitted an additional expansion to open this system, by 2024, to all Californians who’re income-eligible, no matter immigration standing.
Newsom can be allocating billions to carry social companies and behavioral well being care to essentially the most susceptible and costly Medi-Cal sufferers, together with homeless individuals and individuals with drug addictions. And after a Republican-controlled Congress zeroed out the Affordable Care Act penalty on uninsured individuals in 2017, Newsom permitted an insurance coverage requirement for Californians and state-based subsidies to assist low- and middle-class residents buy protection.
Despite these main expansions, an estimated 2.3 million Californians below 65 will stay uninsured, according to an April analysis by University of California researchers.
Richard Figueroa, a longtime well being coverage knowledgeable who now serves as deputy cupboard secretary for Newsom, argues the administration has made nation-leading strides to broaden medical health insurance however acknowledged that California won’t ever be capable to broaden protection to everybody.
“We will always have some uninsured, given the kind of patchwork system that we have. There’s no requirement that people be enrolled, even if it’s affordable and even if it’s free,” Figueroa informed KHN. “We’re filling a big gap in the access piece of the puzzle.”
Newsom’s enlargement of well being care protection to all immigrants no matter standing can also open him as much as criticism ought to he mount a bid for nationwide workplace.
“Whether saying ‘I was able to achieve these things in liberal California’ translates to the rest of the country will be the question,” Jennings stated. “When it comes to subsidizing immigrants, most national politicians have concluded that you can’t take that position and win nationally.”
Celinda Lake, a political strategist who helped lead polling for Biden’s 2020 marketing campaign and conducts polling for the Democratic National Committee, stated Newsom may deflect political assaults if he could make the case that he’s offering higher care whereas saving taxpayer cash.
“Democrats are fired up, and voters don’t understand why more can’t get done in Washington,” Lake stated. “Whoever is in the Democratic primary, you’re going to have to be for universal health care. And if Gov. Newsom runs in 2024 or 2028, he can point to what he’s done in California to show it can work.”
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is likely one of the three main working packages at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit group offering information on well being points to the nation.
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